Stabroek vehicular park issue still not amicably resolved

Jul 05, 2008 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
On Wednesday 2nd July, a delegation of Stabroek Market stallholders headed by me met with the Honourable Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Mr. Robeson Benn, in an effort to resolve the issue of the Stabroek Market vehicular park, since the arbitrary placing of mini buses and the total denial of its use to businesses within the market, and its extension to the north known as the “Stabroek Bazaar,” is being adversely affected.

Having re-stated our very reasonable plea at that meeting, that our livelihood and the very existence of the market itself as a place of legitimate and customary trading and commerce for decades on is most certainly entitled to its frontage, not only to facilitate the necessary activity of the businesses therein, but also for the convenience of customer parking, we were disappointingly told by the minister that that park is Government property.

This response seems to be his only consideration for how he treats with the matter.
Sir, Stabroek stallholders wish to categorically state that consideration, if not rights to lands — public or private — and parapets, which may form the direct frontage of legitimate businesses, is accumulated in a number of ways, and should be considered outside the bounds of so narrow and straight-jacketed a perspective.

As such, I ask how can minibuses, which were traditionally operating at some other place, have the preference of occupying that park, to the absolute denial of stallholders who had occupied there for decades?

In concluding, it must be mentioned that the Honourable Minister offered a number of suggestions, amounting to splinterising vendors’ parking, none of which has the capacity to accommodate vendors’ requirements much less customers’ parking; and among those suggestions, some small portion of the park, but definitely not half of it as was suggested by our delegation, was offered to the vendors by the minister.

And again, this was done without any on-the-ground input for ideas from a vendors’ team for possible arrangement of space and area.

As such, our delegation is grateful for your publication of this letter, as we consider all approaches for some reasonable resolution to this matter.
Albert Lewis

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